This disclosure relates to porous materials, methods of manufacture thereof and to articles comprising the same. In particular, this disclosure relates to the preparation of foams and aerogels that are operative to capture carbon dioxide and other combustion gases.
Most aerogels prepared from inorganic materials (such as silica, titania, zirconia, or the like) or from organic materials (such as resorcinol formaldehyde, melamine formaldehyde, or the like) use supercritical drying or freeze drying. These techniques use supercritical fluids that are supercritical at high pressures and temperatures and can sometimes be safety hazards. Other supercritical fluid based methods use low pressure solvent removal and/or freezing and both of these methods are energy intensive methods and therefore involve high production costs. It is therefore desirable to manufacture aerogels by methods that are less expensive and that involve methods that are safe and less hazardous.
In addition, aerogels have a large surface areas. Carbon dioxide gas is known to be a greenhouse gas and legislation has been enacted in a number of countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. It is therefore desirable to produce devices that can be used in the capture of carbon dioxide and that thereby reduce emissions into the atmosphere.